Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-03
DAILY HERALD,
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN.
new. w. ,. Cattel, Of Phtladel'
phia, Delivers u Discourse.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN.
new. w. .. Cattel, Of Phila aeA.
phia, Delivers u discourse.
The pulpit of the First Presbyterian
church was filled yesterday morning
by Rev. w. G. Cattell, Of Philadel-
phia, secretary Of the Presbyterian
Board Of Ministerial Relief. DR.. Cat
tell began with brief sketch Of the
growth and aim of the Board OF
Relief, and then dwelt upon its
methods of administration, empha-
sizing constantly the sacred obligation
resting on the church to provide for
those who had grown old in its SER
vice.
The burden of the address was con-
tanned in the thought that aid should
be given to the aged or disabled min
lister, not as charity or aims, but be-
cause he had earned it. He portrayed
the striking contrast between the way
the Nation cares for its servants and
the way in which the church had
cared for hers. Were the judges of all
our Federal Courts, were all the Off
GERS Of our army and navy retired on
pensions because they were poor and
needed help? No, it was because
they deserved this recognition Of their
faithful service at the hands of those
to whom they devoted their life's
work. So it should be with the
church. The veterans of the Cross,
those who had borne the heat and
burden of the day in self denying
labors, ought not to be forgotten in
their old age. Many of them in en-
tering the ministry had sacraficed
bright prospects in other callings
which had been open to them. To
leave such men penniless in their old
sage and dependent on charity was as
unjust as it was cruel.
Enlarging further upon this point,
Doctor Cattell spoke of the natural
shrinking of the cultivated, educated
ministers, from asking for aid after
thew become too old for service. 1t
deeply wounds them, not only to be
regarded as objects Of charity. but
that they should be compelled to
come before the Presbytory, to make
bare their poverty and to ask for aid.
Could not the church spare its hon
ored servants such a burden as this :?
They had enough to do already in
their bare and comfortless homes, and
it should be great Joy to Gods peo-
pie If they could lift any portion Of
this burden from the shoulders of
those who had given their lives to
lifting burdens from others.
DR.. Cattell then dwelt upon the rea-
sons why many ministers needed aid,
especially in their old age. He in
sisted that it was not owing to any
lack of economy or of prudence, or
even of foresight. The average
Presbyterian clergyman does not
receive the pay of mechanic, many
of them not more than that of an un-
skilled day laborer.. And there were
social claims on clergymen requiring
expenditures which men in other call
ings, with such small incomes, would
not think of making. With such him
derances to saving and with such
small salaries, there was practically nc
chance for clergymen to lay up any
thing for sickness or for old age, or fol
the families often left destitute by theil
death. Then, too, the private mem.
ber of the church often had ways o.
supplementing small income which
were denied minister because of his
sacred calling. People ordinarily lose
confidence in minister who is inten
upon plans for making money, and NJ
one, he contended, would sooner elm
mate from their lives the idea and as
soclations of money getting or chasing
after wealth than the minister devoted
to his sacred duties.
Therefore the obligation to keeK
them from want in their old age OF
when Frustrated by sickness was all
the greater upon those whom they
had served. In fact the faithful min
lister should be regarded by the church
in the way parents are regarded by
filial piety. Surely it is no charity
for children to help their parents,
when the infirmities of old age inca
pacitate them for further work. 1t il
. privilege rather than a duty, and
one to be discharged with grateful
alacrity. Why should not the "fath
ers'' Of the church be likewise caret
for as gladly and gratefully, and theil
minds relieved from ali care an(
anxiety, at least as to the necessities
Of life. Why should the homes o
these scholarly men and cultured
women be darkened as they often arr
by cruel and bitter want, sharpenet
too by the memory of other and hap
pier days when in the vigor of thei
years the pastor and his wife wrough
in the blessed work of the gospel the,
loved so well?
Doctor Cattell then said that tn
church is apt to forget how many c
these blessed old ministers are no,
dependent on the church for even tn
common comforts of life. The Docto
was daily in receipt of pathetic letters
some of them too pitiful to be mad
public. These letters came to hin
feebly written with trembling hands
on sick beds, or dictated with falterinl
lips. Some of them he had printed
suppressing,of course, the names o
the writer's, and these letters hat
seemed to most people really incredi
BILE. The printed page, however, doe
not show the tear blots and the trem
ulous hand writing that reveal the
heart suffering of the men and womer
who write them.
The Doctor then read some of thu
touching appeals that had been made
to him. He referred also to the cast
which he published in The Church O
May last. More than thirty years agt
lie knew the writer, then a minister il
the vigor of early manhood, and will
all the hope and enthusiasm of hi,
sacred work. 1t was, therefore, with
peculiar and touching interest he reat
tho letter written to him last April by
this scholarly man, and of which b,
had printed the following extract:
"We have nothing to live upon
only as a dollar comes in at an unex
pected moment. | only write to asl
II sorna one cannot he fouud uh,